Road 96

Road 96 is an adventure title that leans heavily on narrative, and the measured performance of the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X paired with the Intel Arc B570 reflects a system that is capable but has clear limits at higher visual presets. The data indicates that the most balanced experience is achieved at Medium settings, which provides a substantial improvement over High in frame rate while retaining enough visual fidelity for a story-driven game. At 1080p Medium, the combo delivers an average of 106 FPS, which is smooth and well above the 67 FPS seen at Ultra. Moving to 1440p Medium, the average drops to 67 FPS, still playable, but the margin for error narrows significantly. At 4K, Medium is the only preset that offers anything close to a consistent experience, with an average of 36 FPS and a minimum of 30 FPS, which is borderline for a game that benefits from steady pacing. Low settings are the fallback for high refresh rate monitors at 1080p, hitting 145 FPS, but for most players, Medium represents the sweet spot where the Arc B570’s capabilities and the game’s demands align without sacrificing too much visual quality.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results clearly favor Medium settings as the optimal configuration for this hardware combo. At 1920x1080, the jump from Low to Medium costs 39 FPS (from 145 to 106), but the visual improvement is likely worth it for an adventure game where atmosphere matters. High settings at 1080p bring the average down to 85 FPS, a 21 FPS drop from Medium, which is a significant penalty for what is typically a modest visual upgrade. Ultra at 1080p is the worst performer among the tested presets, with an average of 67 FPS, which is identical to the 1440p Medium result, indicating that the GPU is struggling with the extra load. At 2560x1440, Medium again proves to be the most viable option, producing 67 FPS average with a minimum of 57 FPS, ensuring that frame pacing remains stable. High at 1440p drops to 54 FPS, which is playable but less consistent, while Ultra falls to 43 FPS, which starts to feel sluggish for a game that does not require rapid reflexes. At 3840x2160, no preset delivers a truly smooth experience, but Medium is the only one that stays above 30 FPS on average, with a 36 FPS average and a 30 FPS minimum. Low at 4K hits 49 FPS, which is technically smoother, but the visual compromise is severe for a game that relies on stylized environments. The recommendation is to use Medium for all resolutions, as it offers the best balance of frame rate and visual quality, with the understanding that 4K will require accepting a lower frame rate.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture, codenamed Matisse. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 2092 in Cinebench R15 multicore and 204 in single-core, while Geekbench returns 8899 multicore and 1593 single-core. Its Passmark multithread score is 22458, with a single-thread score of 2656. The processor’s percentile versus all CPUs is 84, placing it in the upper tier of desktop processors. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 with an average score of 34222 and a delta of 0.1%, and the Intel Core i5-13450HX with an average score of 34333 and a delta of -0.2%. For Road 96, which is not a highly threaded game, the CPU’s single-core performance is more relevant than its multicore muscle. The single-core score of 2656 in Passmark is adequate for the game’s logic and AI, but the data shows that the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 145 FPS, which suggests that the CPU can feed the GPU enough frames at lower loads, but the frame rate drops as the GPU load increases, indicating that the 3700X is not the bottleneck in most scenarios. The 8 cores and 16 threads provide headroom for background tasks, but the game’s performance scales more with the GPU’s capability than with the CPU’s core count. The 32 MB of L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth are sufficient for this title, as evidenced by the consistent frame rates across different settings. The CPU’s boost clock of 4.40 GHz helps in single-threaded scenarios, but the measured FPS data shows that the Arc B570’s rendering capabilities are the primary driver of performance differences between presets.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is a discrete GPU based on the Xe2-HPG architecture, codenamed Battlemage, with a 5 nm process node and 19,600 million transistors. It features 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units, with 18 ray tracing cores. Its base and boost clocks are both 2500 MHz, and it has 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, providing 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU’s pixel rate is 200.0 GPixel/s, and its texture rate is 360.0 GTexel/s, with an FP32 performance of 11.52 TFLOPS. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 2649 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, 83514 in Geekbench OpenCL, and 96844 in Geekbench Vulkan. Its Passmark G3D score is 14195, with a GPU compute score of 7281. The GPU’s percentile versus all GPUs is 65, and its average benchmark score is 20556. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile with an average score of 20534 and a delta of 0.1%, and the Intel Arc A750 with an average score of 20582 and a delta of -0.1%. For Road 96, the GPU’s role is dominant, as the frame rate varies significantly with resolution and settings. At 1080p Low, the GPU delivers 145 FPS, but this drops to 106 FPS at Medium, 85 FPS at High, and 67 FPS at Ultra. The same pattern holds at 1440p, where Low hits 92 FPS, Medium 67 FPS, High 54 FPS, and Ultra 43 FPS. At 4K, the GPU is clearly overburdened, with Low at 49 FPS, Medium at 36 FPS, High at 29 FPS, and Ultra at 23 FPS. The 10 GB VRAM is not a limiting factor in this game, as the memory usage is unlikely to exceed that capacity at any tested setting. The GPU’s 2500 MHz clock speed is consistent, and the performance scaling suggests that the card’s compute throughput is the main constraint at higher presets. The 160-bit memory bus and 380 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K results indicate that the GPU lacks the raw fill rate to maintain playable frame rates at Ultra. The 80 ROPs and 144 TMUs are sufficient for the game’s rendering needs, but the measured FPS shows that the Arc B570 is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K requiring significant settings reductions.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and Intel Arc B570 combination ranks 2324 out of 2903 tested combos in Road 96, placing it in the lower half of the database. This rank reflects the GPU’s mid-tier performance rather than the CPU’s capabilities, as the 3700X is a solid processor with an 84th percentile ranking among all CPUs. The GPU’s 65th percentile ranking among all GPUs is more indicative of this combo’s standing, and the measured FPS data confirms that the Arc B570 is the limiting factor. The combo’s rank is not surprising given that the GPU is positioned close to the Intel Arc A750, which has a similar average benchmark score. In practical terms, this rank means that the combo will struggle with demanding titles at high resolutions and settings, but it can handle less graphically intensive games like Road 96 at medium presets. The CPU’s high percentile does not compensate for the GPU’s lower standing, and the overall combo rank is pulled down by the graphics card’s performance. The data shows that the combo performs better at 1080p, where the GPU’s limitations are less pronounced, and worse at 4K, where the GPU’s fill rate and bandwidth become critical. The rank of 2324 out of 2903 suggests that there are many other combinations that would offer better performance in this game, but for the specific components tested, the results are consistent with the hardware’s benchmarks. The GPU’s nearest rival, the RTX 3070 Mobile, has a nearly identical average score, indicating that this combo’s performance is comparable to that of a laptop GPU, which is a notable point of reference. The CPU’s nearest rivals, such as the Ryzen AI 7 350, show that the 3700X is still competitive in synthetic tests, but this does not translate into a higher combo rank due to the GPU’s influence.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and expected trend: performance drops as resolution increases, but the severity of the drop varies by settings. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 145 at 1080p to 92 at 1440p (a 37% reduction) and then to 49 at 4K (a 47% reduction from 1440p). At Medium settings, the averages are 106, 67, and 36 FPS, respectively, with the 1440p to 4K drop being 46%. At High settings, the averages are 85, 54, and 29 FPS, with the 1440p to 4K drop being 46% again. At Ultra settings, the averages are 67, 43, and 23 FPS, with the 1440p to 4K drop being 47%. The consistent percentage drops across settings indicate that the GPU is the primary limiting factor, as the CPU’s performance does not scale with resolution in a significant way. The fact that the 1080p to 1440p drop is larger in percentage terms than the 1440p to 4K drop at Low settings (37% vs 47%) is interesting, but the overall pattern suggests that the GPU’s pixel throughput is the bottleneck. The Arc B570’s 200.0 GPixel/s pixel rate and 360.0 GTexel/s texture rate are insufficient for 4K at higher settings, as evidenced by the sub-30 FPS averages at High and Ultra. The 380 GB/s memory bandwidth is also a factor, as higher resolutions require more data to be fetched from VRAM. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings (106 to 36 FPS, a 66% reduction) shows that the combo is not suited for 4K gaming without significant compromises. At 1080p, the combo provides a good experience, but at 4K, even Low settings only yield 49 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target for smooth play. The data suggests that the GPU’s 10 GB VRAM is not the issue, as the frame rates drop consistently, indicating that the compute and memory bandwidth are the constraints. The resolution scaling analysis points to the GPU as the component that determines the playable resolution, with the CPU playing a minimal role in the frame rate differences between 1080p and 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best results. Low settings produce an average of 145 FPS, which is the highest recorded in the dataset. Medium settings yield 106 FPS, with a minimum of 90 FPS and a maximum of 122 FPS, providing a stable and smooth experience. High settings drop to 85 FPS, and Ultra falls to 67 FPS, which is still playable but notably lower. The gap between Low and Ultra is 78 FPS, highlighting the GPU’s sensitivity to settings changes. At 2560x1440, the averages are 92 FPS for Low, 67 FPS for Medium (with a minimum of 57 and maximum of 78), 54 FPS for High, and 43 FPS for Ultra. The Medium preset at 1440p offers a similar frame rate to Ultra at 1080p, which indicates that the resolution increase has a comparable impact to the settings increase. The minimum FPS at 1440p Medium is 57, which is above the 30 FPS threshold for playability, but the margin is thinner. At 3840x2160, the averages are 49 FPS for Low, 36 FPS for Medium (with a minimum of 30 and maximum of 41), 29 FPS for High, and 23 FPS for Ultra. The 4K Medium result is the only one that maintains an average above 30 FPS, but the minimum of 30 FPS means that there will be occasional dips below that level. The 4K Low preset at 49 FPS is the most playable option at this resolution, but it requires a significant visual downgrade. The data shows that the combo can handle 1080p and 1440p at Medium settings with acceptable frame rates, but 4K is only viable at Low settings, and even then, the frame rate is below 60 FPS. The measured FPS breakdown confirms that the Intel Arc B570 is a mid-range GPU that excels at 1080p, handles 1440p with some compromises, and struggles at 4K. The CPU’s contribution is consistent across all resolutions, as the frame rate differences are driven by the GPU’s workload. The minimum and maximum FPS values, where available, show that the Medium preset has the best frame pacing, with a 32 FPS range at 1080p and a 21 FPS range at 1440p, indicating that this preset is the most stable choice for the combo.